Punching In: Chavez-DeRemer’s Options for Reshaping the BLS

Monday morning musings for workplace watchers

LCD’s Options for BLS | WNBA Players Press for a Contract

Rebecca Rainey: Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer doubled down on her call to clean up data collection at the Bureau of Labor Statistics after another large revision to the economic data it’s released, putting her at the forefront of the effort to make major changes at the BLS.

There’s multiple ways the labor secretary can play a direct role in changing how the BLS operates, Erica Groshen and William Beach, both former BLS commissioners, said. She can also call on Congress to help.

The BLS is guided by an annual performance planthat spells out its priorities and what data it releases, information that regularly moves markets.

Under the Obama administration, Groshen said DOL leadership added language to the BLS’s performance plans instructing the agency to work towards reducing revisions to its data.

That echos President Donald Trump and Chavez-DeRemer’s own goals. The labor secretary said recently, after the BLS announced it was revising down the number of jobs it estimated throughout last year by 911,000, that the agency would be “modernizing to improve transparency and deliver more accurate and timely data for American businesses and workers.”

“Leaders at the bureau failed to improve their practices during the Biden administration, utilizing outdated methods that rendered a once reliable system completely ineffective and calling into question the motivation behind their inaction,” Chavez-DeRemer said in a statement.

The US Labor Department declined to comment on Bloomberg Law’s questions about what those solutions to improve data collection at the BLS will look like.

Chavez-DeRemer has control over the DOL’s budget requests, which explain how much funding is needed each year and how the agency plans to spend it. Congress can also include language in its appropriations bill directing the BLS to conduct certain types of research or take on new projects, which can strain the agency’s ability to use funds for other needs like data collection improvement, Groshen and Beach said.

Outside of the appropriations and general agency planning process, Beach said that efforts to tweak the BLS’ statistical process could run into legal trouble. The Privacy Act, as well as a secretary’s memorandum transmitting authority over the BLS’ statistical products, could be used to challenge any move to tweak the BLS’ reports or data collection, Beach said.

But, as the Trump administration faces scrutiny over its decision to fire the former BLS commissioner and openly criticize the data released by the BLS as “rigged,” Groshen noted that there is a fine line between political interference and transmitting the administration’s priorities.

“It’s not inappropriate for a secretary or president to say, I really need this. Can you produce it for me?” Groshen explained. “But what’s inappropriate is for them to say, No, this number is not right. Go and fix it.”

US Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer prepares for a television interview outside the West Wing of the White House.

Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Parker Purifoy: The WNBA playoffs tipped off on Sunday but the race is on for the players’ union and the teams to come to an agreement for a new collective bargaining agreement.

The league teams have until Oct. 31 to come to a new contract agreement with the Women’s National Basketball Player’s Association and the pressure is rising for them to meet players’ demands. The contract expiring increases the risk of strikes or lockouts which would disrupt off-season trades, games, and training.

Nneka Ogwumike, president of the WNBPA, told reporters the union is seeking a revenue-sharing pay system that will allow players to see growth in compensation that coincides with the popularity of the women’s league.

“This league is experiencing historic and sustainable growth, from the broadcast deals to the ticket sales to the rising valuations of the teams,” she said. “We are negotiating with a league and at least seven and who knows, maybe all 13 teams, that seem unwilling to share in the growth that we are driving.”

Her remarks come on the heels of a letter signed by 85 members of the Democratic Women’s Caucus to WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert , urging her to “bargain in good faith” to get a deal before Oct. 31.

The players have put the contract negotiations front and center in a time where the league is driving more views and revenue than ever. Last season the WNBA had its most-watched regular season on ESPN, the highest attendance total in 22 years and record merchandise sales.

The players opted out of the old CBA at the end of last season, setting up the Oct. 31 deadline. The parties have been in negotiations since December but the WNBA’s first counter-proposal came in June, days before it announced the addition of three new teams to the league in a deal that gave it $750 million in expansion fees.

Satou Sabally, a player representative for the union and forward for the Phoenix Mercury, called the league’s contract proposal “a slap in the face.”

The WNBA didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.